


Would this be a Date?

by CaptainErica



Series: Studying Defeats You Eventually [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco is softly persistent, F/M, Hermione Granger will never fully change, Libraries and Researching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 16:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18720403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainErica/pseuds/CaptainErica
Summary: Hermione still keeps a very specific schedule, but Draco has been known to be able to help her deviate from it.





	Would this be a Date?

Hermione had set up a schedule for her friends, and for her work. This was typical for her, and completely unsurprising for her friends. She was a little more flexible than in school, but she still pushed back from time to time.

“No, I’m sorry, but Tuesday’s are for work, and research.” She says without looking up from a briefing. “Wednesday is for friends, how about then?”

The surprise, however, came in who she was willing to break her schedule for.

It was a year on from when she had last stepped foot in King’s Cross, a rather lovely June day. Her day at work could only be considered _typical_ , and it was a Thursday. Like Tuesday, Thursday was meant solely for working, and you could count on finding Hermione either in the archives of her own department, or deep in the bowels of the Ministry Library if it was past 5 o’clock.

Harry and Ginny wanted Hermione to come out to a little reunion, and had tried the day before, and the day before that, and… Well, she had a case on at the moment, she had said. She couldn’t go out on a work night, why didn’t they move it to Friday? It was the nostalgia of the day itself, they had tried, but while Hermione was definitely at least a little sentimental, this did not budge her from her conviction.

Ginny, who had shared in the majority of the task of asking those from the Slytherin house to attend, had caught Draco on his way back to the potions store room at St Mungo’s on Wednesday afternoon.

“Hey, you coming tomorrow night? Hog’s Head, bit obscure I’ll grant, but it will be fun!” She had started with, no lead up, as ever.

Draco had scowled softly, didn’t like being interrupted, but he didn’t move away from her. “Why would I go to the Hog’s Head on a Thursday evening?” He had asked, and Ginny had elaborated. He was quiet a moment, thoughtful, then “But Thursday’s are a research day.”

“Yes, that’s what Hermione said.” She had responded with a sigh. All that got her was a deeper frown, before Draco had waved her off and said he would think about it.

So it is Thursday, around lunch, and Draco Malfoy saunters into Hermione Granger’s office, fully ignoring that Auror Potter is standing just outside. Harry had been waiting patiently to be allowed in, a new thing for him, but he wanted to eat in the cafeteria with her so he was willing to wait for her to finish. Draco was _not_. He was here for this moment, and then had to hurry back.

“Granger.” He says, and Hermione looks up with a soft frown, confusion running slowly across her face.

“Ah, Draco.” She says, sitting up a little, “How can I help you? I submitted the case documents to the legal department, the decree should be going out shortly; you know how long it takes these things.” She says, uncertain why he’s here.

He shakes his head, “Yes, I know.” He says, moving closer, his fancy blue robes swaying out behind him (did he change to come here? Those weren’t his work robes). “But I’m here to tell you I need a favor; there’s this Hogwarts reunion type dinner tonight, and I need you to come with me.”

Hermione frowns, eyebrows pressing down, trying to understand why without asking. “Well…”

“Come on, Granger.” He says, “Help me out.” And she agrees.

Draco walks out a few moments later and stops in front of Harry. “Potter? You can tell the little Weasley I will be in attendance tonight, since she was so concerned.” He says, and then he’s gone, and Harry hadn’t heard what went on in there but…

But Hermione arrives at the Hog’s Head just seconds ahead of Draco Malfoy that night.

~~~~~

Since she had no plans this Monday, a rather rainy day in July, Hermione found herself in the Ministry Library. She had finished the majority of her normal work, this week shaping up to be rather slow in terms of cases coming in and her input needing to be sent out. No, today would be about her interests.

The shelves in this library were impossibly tall, but they were rarely standing to their full height. The shelves dropped themselves slowly into the ground when not in use, leaving the majority of the large rooms feeling empty most of the time. Hermione had asked one of the Librarians about it, because rarely were the shelves all the way down, and how did they make that work? It was a long answer that Hermione still sometimes mulls over, but not tonight.

Hermione makes her way down one of the aisles, the shelves at a manageable an reasonable height at the moment, filling the space with a nicely comforting air that made walking in feel nostalgic though she’d only started coming here within the past year. There was a section in the middle to the right that had legal information, but that’s not what she is feeling today. No, today she goes straight to the back and turns left; pureblood history.

Well, that wasn’t the title of the section, but that’s what she had been calling it in her head since she had found it. It was a small section of maybe 4 or 5 bookshelves that made a little alcove, and all of the books she had actually looked at on the shelves so far had seemed to be about pureblood families. It was hard to completely tell, of course, because she hadn’t really investigated it all that much; but today was as good a day as any.

Her mind trips back to the research she had done over the bookmark… calling card that Draco had given her. She had picked it up last night to mark her place in a book she was reading, and holding the cool, fake metal in her hands had reminded her of this section.

She stops just inside the alcove and looks around; she will need to decide what she’s looking for, first. If she doesn’t, she’ll be rather wasted here, won’t she? What is it that she wants to learn?

Setting her things down on the little table there, she steps up to one of the shelves, hoping for a title to catch her attention. She focuses on the shelf at eye level, and reads over the names, murmuring them softly to herself as she goes.

“Bad form, Granger.” Draco’s voice cuts through her narrowed focus, causing her to blink and pull back to find where he is standing. “Should know better than to read things out loud like that when you don’t know what they are.”

“Ah, is that how you got here? Did I conjure you up with my murmuring of titles?” She asks, softly amused though she is appropriately chastened; she _does_ know better. These books are old and about purebloods (at least on this shelf), she needed to tread carefully.

Draco snorts, delicate, and shakes his head. “Don’t you wish you could do so.” He says, smirking just a little, hands pushed into the pockets of some very nicely tailored pants, arms pushing his robes back like they are inviting her to look.

She rolls her eyes and turns fully to look at him. “Not really.” She says, but the smirk doesn’t leave his face. “What brought you here tonight, Draco?” she asks, head tilting a little bit. “You don’t usually come to the library here.”

Draco nods, agreeing, and takes a few steps closer before turning toward the shelves. “Well, I came to see some witch who’s usually free on Monday.” He says, frowning up at the shelf before him, “but was informed that she had already made her way along to the Library, figured it wouldn’t hurt to check into the lead.” He says, almost like he doesn’t care, is bored, but Hermione had always enjoyed that quality to his voice.

“Oh? And what did you need her for?” She asks, keeping her eyes on Draco as he wanders.

She’s rewarded when Draco throws her a look, eyes a little bored, but it accentuates how fiercely attractive he is. “Well, I wanted to take her to dinner.” He says, “Would you be interested in going?” He asks, as if she weren’t exactly who he had been looking for.

She considers for a moment, pursing her lips, “I can only be dissuaded from research, I think, if it’s going to be a date.” She says, a little bold but really by now…

“A date it is, then.” Draco says, a little too quickly, and his cheeks go a nice dusting of pink along the tops. “I mean, it _was_ meant to be a date, if you’re interested.” He says after clearing his throat a little.

Hermione considers him a moment, then nods. “Yes, I think I am.” She says, almost teasing, and he rolls his eyes at her and turns away. “Been long enough.” She adds under her breath.

“Come on, we have a reservation to keep.” He says, acting for all the world as if he hadn’t heard her.

She waves her wand to pack up her things, and follows after him out of the Library and out on the first of many dates.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of this series of one shots. I prefer leaving it here and letting you all free to imagine what happens next (let me know what you think, hm?).  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
